Hey guys, I have been having issues with my SMLE since I bought it. Bubba did a number on her and I have been slowly restoring it piece by piece. The one thing that I hadn't been able to figure out until now has been an issue with extraction. It seems the bolt head and striker are from either an MK I or an MK II; the bolt head has a cut out in the threads where an additional collar on the striker fits. The bolt cycles freely until it is fired or the striker is released causing the collar on the the striker to just barely enter the cut out. This causes some binding and at first I thought it was a head space issue as moderate force is required to open the bolt again. After realizing I could use one of my nipple wrenches for a bb rifle to remove the striker instead of buying a specialized one I disassembled the bolt and discovered this problem.



 

Never mind, I figured a way to properly fit the bolt and am having no more issues. Took a bit of playing with though and kind of a pain in the ass.

If the firing pin collar has a lug that fits the cutout on the threads of the bolt head, it is there to allow you to mesh them and remove the firing pin using the bolt head as a wrench.  They deleted this feature to prevent soldiers from disassembling the bolt.

I am aware of this and from what I have read it was deleted before the MKIII* series; I thought I had fit it right but the collar continues to slip out of the cut out when cycled from the fired position causing binding.